


Speak Now

by camichats



Series: Imagine James and Sirius Prompts [103]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Breaking Up & Making Up, Dark Magic, Established Relationship, First War with Voldemort, Hopeful Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 00:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20498129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: When James says the first, cliche'd line of a breakup, Sirius thinks he's being weird. Next thing he knows, James is telling him that he's about to marry someone else.





	Speak Now

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that there is no Lily bashing! Her and James are under the same influence here. 
> 
> Prompt: “I hear the preacher (or the wizard equivalent of that) say, "Speak now or forever hold your peace." Actually a line from Speak Now by Taylor Swift. The ending can be good or bad depending on what you want.”

"I don't really think things are working out," James had said at first. 

Sirius had argued of course, saying that things were_ definitely_ working out, what with them being together for years with no issues. They hadn't been having arguments or anything, so Sirius was mostly confused as to why James was trying to break up with him. 

Then James had sighed and said, "I want to move out." 

That had gotten Sirius with the program pretty quickly. "What? But- James, why would you want to do that?" 

And James had argued back, and Sirius had tried to convince him that this whole thing was stupid and that their relationship was perfectly fine so there was no reason for _any_ of this. He only stopped when James yelled, "I don't love you anymore!" 

Sirius had tried to force something out of his mouth, but he felt paralyzed. James looked angry but simultaneously like he didn't care. He'd felt a lot of things towards Sirius in the time they knew knew each other, but apathy wasn't one of them. Sirius didn't know what to do, so he turned on his heel and apparated away. 

A week later, James told Remus and Peter that he and Lily had started dating. Sirius was there of course, but it was pretty clear that James wasn't talking to him any more than necessary. 

Two months later, he knocked on the door to Sirius's flat-- the one they had lived at together until James went back to Potter Manor. "Got anything to drink?" he asked, ducking under Sirius's arm to get in. 

Sirius huffed, slamming the door closed with a flick of his wrist. "Come on in," he mumbled. Then louder, he said, "Just some muggle beer." 

James opened the fridge and grabbed two bottles, popping the lids off with a wave of his wand. He sat at the table with one and slid the other to the second chair, obviously meant for Sirius. 

Sirius sighed and fell into the chair. "What are you doing here?" They weren't exactly close these days. Aka, James hung out with Sirius in public, and did enough to keep up the illusion of everything being fine that no one asked Sirius if something was wrong. 

"Lily and I are getting married." James didn't look too happy about that, but surely that was Sirius's imagination. Likely he just wasn't happy to be here, telling Sirius about it. 

"Congratulations," he said, taking a swig from his bottle. "Does this mean I'm invited to the wedding?" 

"You're my best man." 

"I think you're supposed to ask me, not tell me." 

"You'd say no if I asked." 

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, fucking wonder why." He hung his head and rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. "Why are you even here? You don't want me there, and I don't want to go." 

"You're supposed to be there," was all James said. 

Sirius wanted to protest and tell him that that was so fucking stupid, but he kept his mouth shut. They were supposed to be best mates sure, but they were also supposed to be dating. There were a lot of 'supposed to's' in their life, so why was him attending James's wedding the one that was actually happening? "When is it?" 

"Next month, on the Manor's property." 

Sirius nodded. "Do you need help planning or anything?" 

James shrugged, taking a pull from the bottle. Well, that was that. 

Less than a month later, Sirius found himself at Potter Manor in a suit and with no idea how he got into this situation. He still had no buggering idea how he and James fell apart, and he _certainly_ had no idea how James was getting married less than half a year after they broke up. No offense to Lily, but this was a nightmare come to life. He didn't understand how she could agree to this so easily either, to be honest. Who dates someone on the rebound and then marries them? This whole thing was completely and utterly ridiculous, and Sirius felt like he was going insane. 

James showed up next to him a little bit later, sitting down heavily. There was a glazed look to his eyes, like he couldn't believe this was happening either-- and it wasn't in a good way. 

Sirius frowned, wondering if the things he'd noticed _hadn't_ all been in his head. "James?" 

"Huh?" 

"Are you okay?" 

Instead of saying 'yes of course, just shocked that this is happening', James frowned. 

_This is so weird_, Sirius thought. It's almost as though he was under a Confundus charm with the way he was acting. Now that he'd thought that, he couldn't get rid of it. "James, you stay here, I'm gonna go get Moony." Sirius left and returned in a hurry with Remus in tow. "Does he look Confounded to you?" Sirius asked in a low tone. It wouldn't stop James from hearing if he was paying attention, but if his mind was elsewhere hopefully it wouldn't process. 

Remus didn't even bother to look, he just sighed. "Sirius, I know your break up with James was sudden, but-" 

"Remus I am not fucking around," Sirius hissed, latching a hand on Remus's arm. He dragged him where James was still sitting, now looking at his hands like he didn't recognise them. "Look at him." 

Very obviously humoring him, Remus leaned down to look James in the eye. Then he paused, gaze sharpening. "James," Remus said, authority in his voice. James's head snapped up to look at him automatically, and there wasn't as much recognition there as there should've been. "I-." He leaned back up and whispered to Sirius, "I think we need to check Lily. Marlene was just telling me that something's been up with her recently." He glanced at James's still form. "You stay with him, just in case. We might need to make a trip to Saint Mungo's, but I don't want to ruin their bloody wedding if this isn't what it looks like." 

They were careful at first, but it quickly became obvious that something magical was happening where it shouldn't be, and they dragged James and Lily to Saint Mungo's to be diagnosed. To learn that their entire rushed relationship was a product of someone else's meddling was both a comfort and terrifying. Comfort, because it meant that James hadn't dumped Sirius to the side like rubbish. Terrifying because some unknown party had royally buggered with James's head, and Sirius hadn't brought him to hospital, he hadn't even noticed that something was wrong. He had just accepted it and hoped that the situation would solve itself. He wanted to pretend that he'd finally seen it that day because the spell was fading-- and maybe that was partially true-- but mostly he hadn't been able to take that James was about to get married to someone other than him. 

Sirius knocked tentatively on James's hospital door. 

James looked up at him, then his expression crumpled. At the drop of a pin, he was crying, apologising over and over for hurting Sirius. 

"Woah, hold up there, love," Sirius said, rushing to his side. James pitched into him, clinging like Sirius alone was keeping him alive. "You don't need to be sorry for anything, it was just a spell." 

James shook his head, his whole body trembling as he cried. "I was so horrible towards you." 

"Mostly you ignored me," Sirius said, running his hand in circles against James's back to comfort him. 

Sirius could barely make out him saying, "And that's _horrible_," through his sobs. He just held him close and kept telling him that it would be okay. For the first time in months, Sirius felt like that was true. What had happened was completely terrible, but the worst had passed. To be honest, all Sirius cared about right now was that James was back with him. He would keep him safe. No matter what. He pressed a kiss to the top of James's head and rocked him back and forth. He didn't know if it actually helped, but it seemed like James eventually felt better. "It'll all be okay." 

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a prompt driven blog @[imaginejamesandsirius](https://imaginejamesandsirius.tumblr.com) on tumblr. Feel free to send in a prompt of your own or read the rest of the fills!


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